To talk about the horror films of these past few years, it is really bleak.
Today's film market is basically divided between science fiction, comic book, and action genre films.
Action blockbuster Fast & Furious
Horror films, which originally had a small audience, were suddenly squeezed to no place.
Fortunately, Warner Bros. 'The Conjuring Movie Universe' was a great success, and it also injected some vitality into the lifeless horror movie.
The Conjuring Universe
Compared with the current dismal situation, there were actually many excellent horror movies at the beginning of this century.
For example, the "Death is Coming" series that I want to talk about today.
"Here Comes Death"
The "Death Is Coming" series has a total of 5 movies, and the basic routine of the story is the same.
Before the protagonist group experiences a certain disaster, the male/female protagonist consciously/unconsciously saves the team by feeling the arrival of death, but then the team members die one by one....
The highway crash in Death 2
Now it seems that perhaps this routine is not novel.
However, in the era when "Death is Coming", the screen was full of Jason, Freddy and other murderous ghosts.
Therefore, this kind of unique plot was still favored by many audiences at that time.
Who comes first and who comes first? You're going to die anyway!
After gaining a certain popularity, "Death is Coming" will launch a sequel every 3 years (except for the fifth part), and gradually become a popular and widely spread horror film series.
Unfortunately, the sequel is more and more out, but the popularity has been declining.
Although the fifth installment, released in 2011, has a warming trend, after this film, the death contract of a sequel in 3 years has been canceled.
Death Is Coming 5
So what is the reason why this series gradually declined and was eliminated by the times?
The vast majority of horror series encounter the same problem.
That is, when the series of movies is more and more, the pattern will be easily fixed.
But because the film's mode involves the survival of the series, it is difficult to change.
For example, Freddy in "Ghost Street", the mode is "to kill people in a strange way in dreams".
Freddy
If You pull Freddy out of reality and do chase battles with the protagonists, it is obviously unreliable.
At that time, many horror movies were actually playing the routine of letting the protagonist die fancy.
However, gameplay like "Death is Coming" to add suspenseful "accidental death" was really rare at the time.
Viewers can see all sorts of wonderful death shots formed by coincidence.
Elevator decapitation...
The back is too bloody....
Train Flying Tablets...
The iron sheet is cut from the mouth...
Nail gun disfigurement...
Nail gun to break the brain...
Visually speaking, it is very enjoyable to watch.
Another interesting thing about Death is the "Death Trailer".
Before each character dies, the protagonist has a premonition and gets a clue to their death.
What is a death trail?
In fact, it is a variety of Easter eggs ~~
For example, this black brother, the clue to his death is this picture.
It looked like the head flew out
In the end, he died "accidentally" in this way.
The result is also a head out...
The protagonist group relies on clues and "death" to fight wits and courage to avoid the so-called "accident", which is also one of the highlights.
These elements are the foundation of the "Death Is Coming" series.
But the routine is used once, the audience feels fresh, the routine is used twice, and the audience feels bored.
Beginning with the fourth part, the series begins to attempt to gradually transform.
After the transformation, "Death Is Coming 4" is the highest in the series at the box office, but it is a complete failure.
The first three suspenseful "puzzle solving links" have been almost completely deleted.
Instead, the simple and straightforward protagonist's premonition ability explodes.
The protagonist of the fourth part has the strongest premonition ability in history, but it is actually the result of the screenwriter's perfunctory ....
The beginning of the racing track disaster came a premonition, and the end of the cinema mall explosion came again.
What scene elements, death clues, all thrown away.
Simply put it, just let the protagonist have a premonition again and again.
As for the death design? It's too much trouble, go through the motions, just look at the moment of death~
Thus, the audience can see the character being instantly struck by an air tank...
There is a good mat before the iron sheet of the train above, this gas tank is completely absent ....
Walking along, a car crashed, gone...
It's so perfunctory...
There is no suspense, no death design, only a flash of blood.
This is the so-called "European and American plasma tablets".
As a result, "Death Is Coming 4" received the lowest reputation in the entire series.
There are also quite a few people who have begun to lose interest in this series completely.
Selling blood is unreliable
After all, there are many blood plasma films in Europe and the United States, what advantages does your "Death Coming" have over other movies in terms of blood?
Since the bloody road is not smooth, try another path.
Death Is Coming 5 completely abandons the pure blood plasma mode of the fourth part and returns to the style of the first film 11 years ago.
Grim Reaper 5 poster
But as I said before, without innovation, this movie will always be like that.
As a result, "Grim Reaper 5" adds quite a lot of suspense elements on the basis of the return style.
For example, "How to Escape death's list".
The key characters of the series, generally considered to be the ones who actually escaped from the Grim Reaper list, teach the protagonists how to get out of the Grim Reaper's list
As we all know, of all the horror films, the Death is coming series is the film with the lowest chance of survival for the protagonist.
The protagonist group of "Grim Reaper 1-4" is either destroyed in the next box lunch.
As long as it is on the grim reaper list, 100% will die, without any exceptions.
"Grim Reaper 5" throws out this theme, which is undoubtedly a breakthrough.
While the suspense elements increase, they also begin to cause the protagonist group to start fighting with each other.
It is no longer a chaotic confrontation with the "God of Death" as before.
The seamless connection between the ending and the first part also adds a lot to the film.
This scene is the plane crash of the first part of the series, which is perfectly connected to the fifth part
Eventually, the film became the most well-received film in the series, and many media claimed to be the best film in the series when it was released.
But the Death Is Coming series also ended.
There are children's shoes to say, obviously "Death 5" has both innovation and good reputation, why not continue to shoot it?
In fact, the innovation of "Grim Reaper 5" is entirely based on the breakthrough sought in the framework of the series film model.
In other words, although the fifth film has many breakthroughs, for the entire series, it is still "palliative, not the root".
The suspension bridge crash at the beginning of the fifth part
Let's take an analogy.
Marvel movies are often said to be the same.
But in reality, the only factor that audiences can be sure of when watching Marvel movies is that heroes will triumph over evil (mostly).
Specific to how the film process will be filmed and how to present the plot, it is all "unknown factors" for the audience.
This is also one of the reasons why Marvel movies have been complained about by some people as "aesthetic fatigue", but in recent years the box office has been rising.
Marvel movies
And the "Death Is Coming" series....
The viewer can determine the first factor: there must be a disaster at the beginning.
The audience can determine the second factor: the protagonist group is bound to survive the disaster at the beginning.
The audience can determine the third factor: the protagonist group will definitely be killed by the "Grim Reaper" one by one in the next step.
The audience can determine the fourth factor: no matter how the hero and heroine fight, they will undoubtedly die.
Just by counting, there are already 4 nodes that the audience expected.
In this way, can the audience be expected to have a fresh feeling?
All the people on the list so far in the "Death Is Coming" series have all been killed, without exception
Under the limitation of the model, "Death 5" has actually done quite well.
But it has never been able to save the situation in which this series has been eliminated by the times.
Although it has been silent for 8 years, the recent Warner new line has the meaning of restarting this series.
After all, in addition to the "Conjuring Movie Universe", horror films such as "Hold Your Breath" and "A Quiet Place" in recent years have also performed well.
How horror movies find the right direction in this new era is not an easy task.
And look at what kind of road "Death is Coming" will take after the reboot.